18-year-old Kazim Vasiliauskas has signed up for the 2009 FIA Formula Two Championship, becoming the first Lithuanian driver ever to compete in an international single seater series.

Vasiliauskas won multiple karting championships in his home country before moving to the international karting stage in 2007. In his first season of racing he qualified for the ultra-competitive World Karting Championship final and took the runner-up spot in the Winning Series Karting championship. He also finished fifth in the European Championship KZ2 after scoring 5 top six finishes from six finals.

After graduating to car racing in 2008, Vasiliauskas contested ten Formula Renault 2.0 Eurocup races against drivers including fellow F2 rival Tobias Hegewald. He also competed in eight Formula Renault 2.0 Italy races, achieving a season’s best fifth position at the Hungaroring.

Kazim Vasiliauskas livery

Kazim Vasiliauskas said: “I am delighted to be joining F2. Many drivers in the past have progressed from Formula Two to Formula One so this is a great step in my career. Even though I do not have years of experience I wanted to step up from Formula Renault, and F2 is an important category because every car is equal. Of course, I want to do as good as possible, but I know that some drivers in the championship already have seven years of racing behind them. I can learn from these drivers however, and I am sure racing against such good competition will help me to improve.”

Jonathan Palmer, Chief Executive of championship organizer MotorSport Vision, said: “I’m delighted Kazim has signed up to compete in Formula Two. In doing so he becomes the first driver from his home nation to compete at this level of motorsport, and Lithuania becomes the twelfth different country to be represented on the F2 grid. Kazim has progressed from karts to F2 in a relatively short period of time but has shown considerable potential along the way, and he is certainly capable of surprising his more experienced rivals in F2.”

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